1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to an image display control technique for a user interface so as to enable a user to efficiently select a reproduction start position of video content data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electronic apparatus such as a video recorder or a personal computer may record and reproduce a variety of items of video content data, such as television broadcasting program data. In this case, while a title name is attached to each piece of the video content data stored in the electronic apparatus, it is hard for a user to recognize the content of each item of the video content data merely by the title name. Therefore, it becomes necessary for recognizing the content of the video content data to reproduce the video content data. However, it takes a long time to reproduce video content data with a long total time length even if a fast-forward function is utilized.
An apparatus with a function of displaying a list of characters is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-309269. This apparatus has a function of displaying images of each face of the characters in video content side by side with one another as a list of the characters in the video content.
However, simply displaying a list of characters in the way disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-309269 does not enable a user to recognize a time zone, in video content data, in which the characters appear. For instance, the user may desire to selectively reproduce only a time zone in which certain characters (or a group of characters), who attract the user's interest, appear. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve a new function of presenting which of the characters appear in which of the time zones in the total video content data. Further, a scheme which allows the user to simply confirm face images of the characters appearing in each time zone (scene) has been desired.